THE Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) said it signed an agreement with Microsoft Philippines Thursday for a pilot program on executive training for policy makers focusing on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) represents a public-private partnership agreement which will create and implement a curriculum focused on educating government officials on technologies with the potential to bridge the gap with best practices.

DAP and Microsoft hope to start on the first batch of “scholars” before year’s end. National Technology Officer for Microsoft Philippines Richard Bon Moya said that the curriculum will be patterned on that of the recently-launched Microsoft AI Business School.

“Microsoft recently launched AI Business School. We will be patterning (the curriculum) mostly from that learning,” he said.

Microsoft also said it will provide DAP the technical support to develop the program as well as help engage resource speakers.

Microsoft “will be providing a framework, (DAP) will evaluate and study, they will conform it to the academic rigor, and once they find that acceptable within the parameters of their mandate, then we will implement,” he added.

DAP President and CEO Engelbert C. Caronan Jr. said that the imperative is to address the lag in technological innovation.

“There’s a need, at least as far as the Philippine bureaucracy is concerned. There’s really a need to have in-depth knowledge about technology. And the way we see it now is that this knowledge is not well dispersed in the bureaucracy.” — Katrina T. Mina

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